Zero Knowledge Blind Auctions

Governance zkDAO
1

ZK Blind Auction

Proposal Overview

ZK Blind Auction is a platform to conduct a blind auction that only shows each bidder’s address and a hashed bid. In the scope of this proposal, the MVP implements blind auctions that can be created, and a deposit is collected during bids to discourage fraudulent bids. An auctioneer is responsible for collecting the secrets and bid amounts from bidders after auction end and generating a proof to verify the winning bid amount. Only the winning bid amount is revealed, and non-winning valid bids have their deposit refunded.

Application type

zkDAO

Use Case

Conduct blind auctions where users can trust an auctioneer to generate a proof and obscure their bid amounts. Blind auctions are often beneficial for nonprofits that need to fundraise by auctioning a donated item, and for auctions that wish to encourage buyers to put forth their best offer while preventing collusion.

Competitive Landscape

Blind auctions on blockchains are typically done not by fully obscuring bids but instead use fake bids to mimic this functionality. I am not aware of other live projects that use zero knowledge proofs to achieve this.

Proposal Ask

ZK Blind Auction is built to be community-driven and self-funded by the DAO. In order to get this up and running, we will be requesting the $15k/year stable basic income to take care of initial development, welfare and operations costs.

This ask will be in line with the laid down milestones as detailed below

  1. launching a feature-complete product on our testnet
  2. forming a DAO with 5-out-of-9 multisig with our DAOs
  3. launching on our mainnet with audit
  4. attracting 1k daily active users (with launch video, full PR promotion)
  5. attracting 10k daily active users (with a detailed roadmap, governance process)

Roadmap

Objective Date Status
Testnet launch April 26th Done
Beta Testing and Fixes May 6th Done
Mainnet Launch May 6th Done
Smart Contract Audit July 31st Pending

External links

Screenshots of the dApp

  1. Home Page
    Screen Shot 2022-05-16 at 6.29.47 PM
    Screen Shot 2022-05-16 at 6.29.47 PM1920×1102 55 KB
  2. Create Auction
    Screen Shot 2022-05-16 at 6.29.57 PM
    Screen Shot 2022-05-16 at 6.29.57 PM1920×1106 32.1 KB
  3. Auction Details
    Screen Shot 2022-05-16 at 6.30.12 PM
    Screen Shot 2022-05-16 at 6.30.12 PM1920×1115 67.6 KB
1 Like
2

Hi, can you explain a bit more about how the auctioneer is storing the secrets right now?

3

Hi, I don’t currently have this feature yet. Would it be ok to add a feature that uses a centralized database to allow auctioneers to access and bidders to save to it?

4

If you are using a centralized database to store such information, I think the data will have to be encrypted in order to make your app secure. And with a centralized database, I think your app would be considered feature-complete.